Chesapeake Bay News

While the abundance of adult female blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay is below target, fisheries experts have reported the blue crab stock is not depleted and overfishing is not occurring.

Image by 4736202690/Shutterstock

According to the 2015 Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab Advisory Report, released by the Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee (CBSAC), the start of the 2015 crabbing season saw 101 million adult female blue crabs in the Bay. This marks a 47 percent increase from last year’s abundance of adult females, which the Chesapeake Bay Program tracks as an indicator of Bay health. Because blue crab abundance is above the 70 million threshold, the blue crab stock is not considered depleted. And because just 17 percent of adult females were harvested in 2014—well below the 25.5 percent target—overfishing is not occurring.

An estimated 17 percent of adult female blue crabs were harvested in 2014. This is below both the target (25.5 percent) and the maximum number that can be taken (34 percent).

In its report, CBSAC urged the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) and the Potomac River Fisheries Commission (PRFC) to maintain a risk-averse management approach to protect juvenile crabs, whose numbers fluctuate from year to year. The committee, which is made up of scientists, academics and government representatives and housed under the Bay Program’s Sustainable Fisheries Goal Implementation Team (GIT), also recommended evaluating the establishment of a Bay-wide allocation-based management framework.

An allocation-based management framework would allocate an annual “total allowable catch” of male and female crabs to Maryland, Virginia and the PRFC. In the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement, the Bay Program committed to evaluating the establishment of this framework. “[This report] directly supports our efforts to achieve the blue crab outcomes set forth in the [Watershed] Agreement, using the best science available to provide meaningful input to management decisions made by jurisdictions,” said Peyton Robertson, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Chesapeake Bay Office Director and Sustainable Fisheries GIT Chair, in a media release.

Before the Susquehanna River meets the Chesapeake Bay, before it churns through Conowingo Dam, and before it winds through the farmlands of Pennsylvania, it begins its 464-mile journey with a calm exit from Otsego Lake in Cooperstown, New York. Every Memorial Day weekend, an assortment of canoe and kayak paddlers share the first 70 miles of that journey, taking in the green landscape of central New York during the General Clinton Canoe Regatta.

This year, over 200 vessels entered the full course from Cooperstown to Bainbridge, with most holding two or more paddlers. Entrants came from across the country, and Canada was also well represented — English and French could be heard throughout the race. Paddlers shouted as they portaged their vessels past spectators at three dams. Support crews cheered while making quick, timesaving handoffs of energy drinks and food. Shallow water following a dry spring season may have slowed things down this year, but the racers remained focused, and the leading professional team still finished in less than eight hours.

Competitors enter the water at Lake Front Park in Cooperstown, N.Y., before the start of the C-2 Pro division of the 2015 General Clinton Canoe Regatta on May 25, 2015. The 70-mile canoe race started at Otsego Lake in Cooperstown, with the first professional paddlers taking about eight hours to reach the finish line in Bainbridge, N.Y.

Dominic Thibault, left, of Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel, Québec, and Dominic Chamberland of Champlain, Québec, enter the water at Lake Front Park in Cooperstown, N.Y., before the start of the race.

Competitors round a buoy on Otsego Lake before paddling toward the mouth of the Susquehanna River.

Teammates Andy Triebold, bottom right, of Grayling, Mich., and Steve Lajoie of Mirabel, Québec, paddle hard at the mouth of the Susquehanna River in Cooperstown, N.Y. The duo had won the General Clinton race six times before the 2015 competition.

Competitors follow the Susquehanna River in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Support crews resupply paddlers with drinks and snacks on the Susquehanna River near Milford, N.Y., in Otsego County.

Prepared fluids with long drinking straws await a resupply effort at Milford Bridge in Otsego County, N.Y.

Paddlers approach Goodyear Lake Dam in Milford, N.Y. The dam marks the second of three portages during the race.

Teams and spectators line the shore below Southside Dam in Oneonta, N.Y.

Competitors rush to re-enter the water below Southside Dam in Oneonta, N.Y.

Competitors carry their canoe through the third and final portage during the 2015 General Clinton Canoe Regatta below Southside Dam in Oneonta, N.Y.

Spectators cheer for paddlers at the finish line in Bainbridge, N.Y.

Paddlers Andy Triebold, right, of Grayling, Mich., and Steve Lajoie of Mirabel, Québec, recover with chocolate milk after finishing in first place with a time of 7 hours, 42 minutes and 53 seconds for their seventh General Clinton Canoe Regatta victory as a professional duo.

About Will Parson - Will is the Multimedia Specialist for the Chesapeake Bay Program. A native of Bakersfield, California, he acquired an interest in photojournalism while studying ecology and evolution at University of California, San Diego. He pursued stories about water and culture as a graduate student at Ohio University's School of Visual Communication, and as an intern at several newspapers in New England before landing in Maryland.

Maryland’s state capital will join a national network of partners with the creation of Keep Annapolis Beautiful, an initiative to reduce waste and protect natural spaces throughout the city.

Keep Annapolis Beautiful is a partnership between Annapolis Green—a local organization that aims to build environmental stewardship—and the national nonprofit Keep America Beautiful. Lynne Forsman and Elvia Thompson co-founded Annapolis Green in 2005, and the group’s waste reduction and litter prevention programs will become part of the Keep Annapolis Beautiful program.

“We have affiliated with Keep America Beautiful because our two organizations’ programs are closely aligned and the goals of both include building vibrant communities,” said Forsman in a release. “We see beautification and environmentalism/conservation as two sides of the same coin.”

Scientists expect the Chesapeake Bay to see a slightly smaller than average dead zone this summer, due to reduced rainfall and less nutrient-rich runoff flowing into the Bay from the Susquehanna River this spring.

When excess nutrients enter the Chesapeake Bay, they can fuel the growth of algae blooms and lead to low-oxygen "dead zones" that are harmful for fish, shellfish and other underwater life. (Image by Janelle Lugge/Shutterstock)

Dead zones are areas of little to no dissolved oxygen that form when nutrient-fueled algae blooms die and decompose. Resulting low-oxygen conditions can suffocate marine life. The latest forecast predicts an early-summer no-oxygen zone of 0.27 cubic miles, a mid-summer low-oxygen zone of 1.37 cubic miles and a late-summer no-oxygen zone of 0.28 cubic miles. This forecast, funded by the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is based on models developed at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and the University of Michigan.

Nutrient pollution and weather patterns influence dead zone size. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), 58 million pounds of nitrogen entered the Bay in the spring of 2015, which is 29 percent lower than last spring’s nitrogen loadings.

Researchers with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) will measure oxygen levels in the Bay over the next few months. While the final dead zone measurement will not take place until October, bimonthly updates on Bay oxygen levels are available through DNR’s Eyes on the Bay.